The best period drama's
by alkooij | created - 07 Oct 2019 | updated - 08 Oct 2019 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. North & South (2004)
TV-PG | 235 min | Drama, Romance
North and South is a four-part adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's love story of Margaret Hale, a middle-class southerner who is forced to move to the northern town of Milton.
Stars: Daniela Denby-Ashe, Richard Armitage, Tim Pigott-Smith, Sinéad Cusack
Votes: 34,957
2. The Alienist (2018–2020)
TV-MA | 60 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Newspaper illustrator John Moore meets with criminal psychologist (alienist) Dr. Laszlo Kreizler to investigate a serial killer in New York during the late 19th century.
Stars: Daniel Brühl, Dakota Fanning, Luke Evans, Robert Wisdom
Votes: 60,142
3. Pride & Prejudice (2005)
PG | 129 min | Drama, Romance
Sparks fly when spirited Elizabeth Bennet meets single, rich, and proud Mr. Darcy. But Mr. Darcy reluctantly finds himself falling in love with a woman beneath his class. Can each overcome their own pride and prejudice?
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Brenda Blethyn, Donald Sutherland
Votes: 330,604 | Gross: $38.41M
4. Atonement (2007)
R | 123 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Thirteen-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Brenda Blethyn, Saoirse Ronan
Votes: 299,766 | Gross: $50.93M
5. Endeavour (2012–2023)
TV-14 | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Set from 1965 into the 1970s, the show follows Endeavour Morse in his early years as a police constable. Working alongside his senior partner DI Fred Thursday, Morse engages in a number of investigations around Oxford.
Stars: Shaun Evans, Roger Allam, James Bradshaw, Sean Rigby
Votes: 33,402
6. Inspector George Gently (2007–2017)
TV-MA | 89 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
With the help of DS John Bacchus, Inspector George Gently spends his days bringing to justice members of the criminal underworld who are unfortunate enough to have the intrepid investigator assigned to their cases.
Stars: Martin Shaw, Lee Ingleby, Simon Hubbard, Lisa McGrillis
Votes: 8,520
7. War & Peace (2016)
TV-14 | 63 min | Drama, History, Romance
As the Russian conflict with Napoleon reaches its peak, five aristocratic families face the possibility of their lives being changed forever.
Stars: Paul Dano, James Norton, Lily James, Adrian Edmondson
Votes: 26,623
8. Chernobyl (2019)
TV-MA | 41 min | Drama, History, Thriller
In April 1986, the city of Chernobyl in the Soviet Union suffers one of the worst nuclear disasters in the history of mankind. Consequently, many heroes put their lives on the line in the following days, weeks and months.
Stars: Jessie Buckley, Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Adam Nagaitis
Votes: 864,658
9. Brooklyn (2015)
PG-13 | 117 min | Drama, Romance
An Irish immigrant lands in 1950s Brooklyn, where she quickly falls into a romance with a local. When her past catches up with her, however, she must choose between two countries and the lives that exist within.
Director: John Crowley | Stars: Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson, Jim Broadbent
Votes: 150,455 | Gross: $38.32M
10. Prime Suspect: Tennison (2017)
TV-14 | 60 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Prime Suspect 1973 tells the story of 22-year-old Jane Tennison's first days in the police force, in which she endured flagrant sexism before being thrown in at the deep end with a murder enquiry.
Stars: Alun Armstrong, Andrew Brooke, Blake Harrison, Daniel Ezra
Votes: 3,670
11. Far from the Madding Crowd (2015)
PG-13 | 119 min | Drama, Romance
In Victorian England, the independent and headstrong Bathsheba Everdene attracts three very different suitors: Gabriel Oak, a sheep farmer; Frank Troy, a reckless Sergeant; and William Boldwood, a prosperous and mature bachelor.
Director: Thomas Vinterberg | Stars: Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge
Votes: 53,706 | Gross: $12.23M
12. An Education (2009)
PG-13 | 100 min | Drama
A coming-of-age story about a teenage girl in 1960s suburban London, and how her life changes with the arrival of a playboy nearly twice her age.
Director: Lone Scherfig | Stars: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Olivia Williams
Votes: 138,146 | Gross: $12.57M
13. Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (2012–2015)
TV-PG | 60 min | Crime, Drama, History
A female sleuth sashays through the back lanes and jazz clubs of Melbourne in the late 1920s, fighting injustice with her pearl-handled pistol and her dagger-sharp wit.
Stars: Essie Davis, Nathan Page, Hugo Johnstone-Burt, Ashleigh Cummings
Votes: 17,717
14. Downton Abbey (2010–2015)
TV-PG | 60 min | Drama, Romance
A chronicle of the lives of the British aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in the early twentieth century.
Stars: Hugh Bonneville, Phyllis Logan, Elizabeth McGovern, Brendan Coyle
Votes: 224,841
15. Cable Girls (2017–2020)
TV-MA | 50 min | Drama
Set in the 1920s, this is the story of four women from different backgrounds newly hired as operators for a phone company.
Stars: Blanca Suárez, Yon González, Ana Fernández, Nadia de Santiago
Votes: 16,143
16. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)
TV-14 | 124 min | Drama, Romance, War
In the aftermath of World War II, a writer forms an unexpected bond with the residents of Guernsey Island when she decides to write a book about their experiences during the war. Then she learns the secret they are afraid to reveal.
Director: Mike Newell | Stars: Jessica Brown Findlay, Tom Courtenay, Michiel Huisman, Katherine Parkinson
Votes: 52,654
17. The Age of Adaline (2015)
PG-13 | 112 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance
A young woman, born at the turn of the 20th century, is rendered ageless after an accident. After many solitary years, she meets a man who complicates the eternal life she has settled into.
Director: Lee Toland Krieger | Stars: Blake Lively, Michiel Huisman, Harrison Ford, Kathy Baker
Votes: 203,029 | Gross: $42.48M
18. Mrs. Wilson (2018)
56 min | Biography, Drama, Mystery
A grieving widow discovers that her seemingly ideal husband lived many secret lives.
Stars: Ruth Wilson, Iain Glen, Fiona Shaw, Calam Lynch
Votes: 9,104
19. The Crown (2016–2023)
TV-MA | 60 min | Biography, Drama, History
Follows the political rivalries and romances of Queen Elizabeth II's reign and the events that shaped Britain for the second half of the 20th century.
Stars: Claire Foy, Olivia Colman, Imelda Staunton, Matt Smith
Votes: 256,634
20. Gentleman Jack (2019–2022)
TV-MA | 60 min | Biography, Drama, History
A dramatization of the life of lesbian trailblazer, voracious learner, and cryptic diarist Anne Lister.
Stars: Suranne Jones, Sophie Rundle, Gemma Whelan, Ben Hunter
Votes: 15,935
21. The Bletchley Circle (2012–2014)
TV-14 | 314 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
In 1952, four women who worked at the wartime code-breaking centre, Bletchley Park, reunite to track down a serial killer.
Stars: Rachael Stirling, Julie Graham, Sophie Rundle, Anna Maxwell Martin
Votes: 14,028
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